The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

At times, the thirst for new Apple products is so great in China that fake Apple Stores selling real Apple products pop up, with helpful uniformed employees ready to sell you any gray-market iThingy you might want. Now Reuters reports that some of those stores have switched over to selling local Chinese phone brands like Huawei.

It probably also helps that Apple has opened more legitimate stores in the country in general. The other problem, though, is that iPhones no longer have the cachet that they used to. Yes, we mean compared to four months ago.

That’s apparently how fickle device-buyers in China are. Right now, Reuters explains, there’s a patriotic trend in devices, with shoppers buying devices from local brands instead of foreign brands like Samsung and Apple. (The phones are all assembled in China, so any brand helps local employment in that way.)

“I think the iPhone has a higher brand value, but it’s hard to say its performance is better than Huawei,” one shopper explained to Reuters. If the phone’s “brand value” or coolness factor fades, then what will the premium foreign brands do to differentiate themselves? While the market in China is massive and fast-changing, that’s an important question for phone manufacturers all over the world.